Violin Family - Characteristics

Characteristics

The playing ranges of the instruments in the violin family overlap each other, but the tone quality and physical size of each distinguishes them from one another. The ranges are as follows: Violin - G3 to E7, Viola - C3 to A5 (conservative), Violoncello - C2 to A5 (conservative), and double-bass - E1 to C5 (slightly expanded from conservative estimate.)

Both the violin and the viola are played under the jaw, the viola being the larger of the two instruments, with a playing range reaching a perfect fifth below the violin's. The cello is played sitting down with the instrument between the knees, and its playing range reaches an octave below the viola's. The double bass is played standing or sitting on a stool, with a range that typically reaches a minor sixth, an octave, or a ninth below the cello's.

While the cello (which developed from the bass violin), the viola and the violin are indisputable members of the ancestral violin, or viola da braccio family, the double bass's origins are sometimes called into question. The double bass is occasionally taken to be part of the viol family, due to its sloping shoulders, its tuning, the practice of some basses being made with more than four strings, and its sometimes flat back. Others point out that correlation does not imply causality, and say that these external similarities are either arbitrary, or that they arise from causes other than a relationship to the viol family. They point to the internal construction of the double bass, which includes a sound post and a bass bar like other violin family instruments, as a more weighty piece of evidence than the external features. Its origins aside, it has historically been used as the lowest member of the violin family.

All string instruments share similar form, parts, construction, and function, and the viols bear a particularly close resemblance to the violin family. However, instruments in the violin family are set apart from viols by similarities in shape, in tuning practice, and in history. Violin family instruments have four strings each, are tuned in fifths (except the double bass, which is tuned in fourths), are not fretted, and have four rounded bouts, and always have a sound post and a bass bar inside. In contrast, the viol family instruments usually have five to six strings with a fretted fingerboard, are tuned in fourths and thirds, often have sloping shoulders, and do not necessarily have a sound post or bass bar.